Mattéo #6

Jean-Pierre Gibrat's Mattéo reaches its sixth volume, spanning the turbulent months of September 1939 to June 1940 as France slides toward catastrophe. The cover, rendered in Gibrat's characteristically warm, painterly style, shows a young woman in a brown jacket bearing a Red Cross emblem standing resolute at the prow of a boat, while two other figures — one slumped, one gazing into the distance — share the vessel amid a Union Jack flag, rifles, and an open sea. It's a quietly gripping image that speaks of rescue, exhaustion, and the fragile hope of escape during one of history's darkest chapters.